Molecular analysis of ovine calpastatin (CAST) and myostatin (MSTN) genes in Synthetic Population Bulgarian Milk sheep using PCR-RFLP

Abstract

The aim of present study was to investigate the polymorphism of calpastatin and myostatin genes in sheep from Synthetic Population Bulgarian Milk (SPBM) breed because they are considered as candidate genes for meat and growth traits. Blood samples were collected from 121 sheep represented SPBM and genomic DNA was extracted using commercial purification kit. Genotypes were determined by PCR amplification followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method. Based on results, calpastatin gene was found to be polymorphic but myostatin gene was monomorphic. The allelic frequencies in CAST gene were 92% for allele M and 8% for N. Genotype frequencies were 84%, 15% and 1% for MM, MN and NN in calpastatin locus, respectively. In this population, calpastatin locus did not show Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (P<0.05). Observed heterozygosity for this locus was 0.148. Established polymorphism of CAST gene in SPBM sheep can be used in future research for detection of possible association between effective genotype and meat tenderness.

Keywords

• Synthetic Population Bulgarian Milk sheep breed (SPBM)
• genetic polymorphism
• calpastatin (CAST) gene
• myostatin (MSTN) gene
• PCR-RFLP analysis